RESOLVING THE LEDGER
This is one outlet's own report from Newsweek — the article as it was filed. Other outlets are covering the same event; open the full story to compare every source side by side.
See the full story · 5 sources
0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. As the Lindsay Clancy murder trial enters its final phase this week, the prosecution's last rebuttal witness used his testimony Tuesday to challenge Clancy's account of the male voice she says commanded her to kill her three children.
Dr. Gregory Saathoff, a forensic psychiatrist, said that Clancy gave “markedly inconsistent” accounts of the voice and said her description of the audio hallucination was "very unusual."
The testimony came one day after the defense made a dramatic bid for a mistrial, accusing prosecutors of intentional misconduct after prosecution psychologist Dr. Kirk Heilbrun referenced Clancy's Catholic faith and the concept of suicide as a “mortal sin.” Judge William Sullivan rejected the request and instructed jurors to disregard the religious references.
The case now turns on the competing psychiatric explanations for what happened on January 24, 2023. The defense does not dispute that Clancy killed 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan; instead, it argues that severe postpartum mental illness, including psychosis, left her not criminally responsible. Prosecutors acknowledge that Clancy was seriously mentally ill but argue that she retained an understanding of her actions and their wrongfulness.
Saathoff is expected back on the stand Wednesday, with Sullivan indicating that closing arguments are likely Thursday. The conclusion of his testimony will bring an end to the evidence phase of a trial that has lasted roughly five weeks and leave Clancy's fate in the hands of the jury.
The defense motion erupted Monday after prosecution forensic psychologist Dr. Kirk Heilbrun testified about a conversation he said he had with Clancy concerning her Catholic upbringing and the concept of suicide being a "mortal sin."
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington accused prosecutors of intentional misconduct and argued that references to religion could improperly influence jurors in deciding whether Clancy was legally responsible for the killings.
It was not the first time religion had surfaced in testimony. Clancy's former mother-in-law had previously been asked about whether murder is considered a mortal sin, prompting Sullivan to tell jurors not to consider the reference for any purpose.
The bench ultimately rejected the mistrial request.
He instead instructed jurors to disregard the religious references. The proceedings were then paused, with jurors sent home before testimony resumed Tuesday.
The failed mistrial motion was significant because it came at the end of an already extraordinarily contentious trial. But it did not stop the case. Prosecutors returned Tuesday with their final rebuttal witnesses, seeking to undermine the defense's central claim that Clancy was experiencing psychosis when she killed her children.
Clancy claimed that she heard a man's voice telling her to kill her children so that she could then kill herself.
“This is your last chance. You have to kill the kids so you can kill yourself," she said the voice told her. The defense has presented this as evidence of a command hallucination associated with postpartum psychosis.
The prosecution's experts have attacked that explanation. Heilbrun testified that he did not believe Clancy was experiencing the type of psychosis that would make her legally irresponsible for her actions and questioned aspects of her account of the alleged voice.
“To put it mildly, that would be a very, very unusual pattern or manifestation of how this kind of thing comes about. Very unusual," he said. “I’ve been doing this kind of evaluation for many, many years, and I’m always very careful when someone tells me that they experienced a symptom only during the course of committing an offense.”
Heilbrun testified that an intrusive thought, rather than an auditory hallucination, was a more plausible explanation given Clancy's history of unwanted thoughts. “If that were the case on January 24, then it would be consistent with what she had been experiencing for months before," he said. “So that was something that made more sense to me, that rather than an auditory hallucination it would have been an unwelcome, intrusive thought.”
He also said Clancy did not report trying to drown out or escape the voice with music, prayer or other distractions—something he said would be seen in some people experiencing auditory hallucinations.
Saathoff, the prosecution's final rebuttal witness, told jurors Tuesday that Clancy told him the voice began while she was preparing food and continued throughout the killings, stopping after she strangled her youngest child, Callan.
He also noted that pattern was highly unusual. “This was the first time she reported, that was documented, that she heard an auditory hallucination,” Saathoff testified. “That was unusual and also what was very unusual was the fact that the voice stopped with the death or the strangling of her youngest son Callan.” He said it was also unusual for someone experiencing psychosis to report a voice that appeared only once and was constant throughout an alleged offense.
The psychiatrist also highlighted a discrepancy over when the voice supposedly began. Saathoff said Clancy told him it started about 5:34 p.m., after she had spoken with Patrick, while she had previously told defense expert Dr. Margaret Spinelli that it began around 5:15 p.m., shortly after Patrick left the house. Saathoff said the accounts did not match. He also pointed to a separate discrepancy involving chicken nuggets: Clancy reportedly told him she was getting food from the refrigerator when the voice began, while Patrick said Dawson was already eating chicken nuggets before he left.
“It's markedly inconsistent,” Saathoff testified. “Ms. Clancy was very clear with me about the time the voice started and that it was constan...
AIPROPX is an independent multi-source news index — we track, compare, and connect coverage from across the web into one place you won't find anywhere else.